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HPU Poll: 1 in 5 North Carolinians to Spend More on Halloween This Year

HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 17, 2018 – A High Point University Poll finds that 63 percent of North Carolinians will be celebrating Halloween this year while 36 percent will not be celebrating. These findings are similar to a 2015 HPU Poll, when 65 percent of North Carolinians said they would be celebrating Halloween.

Seventy-one percent say they will spend the same amount of money as last year, while 19 percent will spend more and 9 percent will spend less.

For those who will celebrate, they say they plan to spend an average of $78 total, which includes money spent on costumes, decorations, candy and food and drink. About two-thirds (68 percent) of celebrants say they will be spending $50 or less on the holiday. When asked specifically about candy, they plan to spend an average of $31 total.

The HPU Poll also asked participants if they own a pet and intend to dress their pet up for Halloween. Of the 70 percent of survey respondents with a pet, only a quarter (25 percent) will dress their pet up for Halloween this year.

Finally, the poll asked participants if they think it’s too early for retailers to begin stocking their shelves for Christmas. A majority (58 percent) of North Carolinians agree that September and October is too early, while about 1 in 4 (27 percent) do not think it’s too early for retailers to begin getting their shelves ready for Christmas.

“On average, North Carolinians are spending a little more this Halloween than they did in 2015,” says Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll. “And while about one-third of our survey respondents will not be handing out candy this year, those that are will be spending an average of $31 on candy alone.”

All adults – Celebrating Halloween (October 2018)

I know it is a few weeks off, but now I would like to ask you about Halloween. Do you celebrate the Halloween holiday?

Some people spend a lot of time and money celebrating the Halloween holiday, others do not celebrate much at all. Altogether how much money would you say you will spend this year on Halloween, including things like costumes, decorations, candy to give out, and food and drinks?

Average (Mean) – $78 dollars

$50 or less – 68 percent

More than $50 – 32 percent

Based on 576 respondents who provided an approximate dollar figure for their spending.

The most recent HPU Poll was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on Sept. 28-Oct. 7, 2018 and an online survey fielded at the same time. The responses from a sample of all North Carolina counties came from 921 adults interviewed online (603 respondents) as well as landline or cellular telephones (318 respondents). The Survey Research Center contracted with Survey Sampling International to acquire these samples, and fielded the online survey using its Qualtrics platform. This is a combined sample of live phone interviews and online interviews. The online sampling is from a panel of respondents, so their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classical margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points to account for a traditional 95 percent confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.2 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.3 (based on the weighting). The data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race, and education level based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional error into the findings of opinion polls. Details from this survey are available at http://www.highpoint.edu/src/files/2018/10/61memoA.pdf.

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past studies can be found at the Survey Research Center website at http://www.highpoint.edu/src/. The materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010.

The HPU Poll reports methodological details in accordance with the standards set out by AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, and the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member of the Initiative. For more information, see http://transparency.aapor.org/index.php/transparency.